By Michael L. Hogue Hi and welcome back to the Hogue Connection! I know that I’m not my own grandpa. Pretty sure, anyway. I discussed this in an earlier blog post here. Bloggers say you shouldn’t use the same title twice, but it really does describe my feeling regarding confusing family relationships. Recently, I digitized my great, great grandpa William M. Hogue’s pension application. After reviewing it again, I discovered some cousins worth mentioning.
One of the requirements of applying for an invalid pension was to obtain affidavits from at least two individuals that weren’t your relatives. The information should be from someone who was a witness to events that would verify your need for the pension. Unfortunately, as we will soon discover, William’s efforts never got off on the right foot.
R.P. Hogue and Mrs. Percy Hogue
Here’s where the confusing family relationships come into play. These folks are the only witnesses who provided their affidavits for the application. R.P. Hogue is Ralph Pennell Hogue, and Percy is Ralph’s sister. Ralph and Percy were William and Mary Jane’s nephew and niece. They were also Mary Jane’s half siblings. In fact, Mary Jane lived with them for several years in Georgia, after her mother Sarah married Daniel W. Hogue, William’s next youngest brother.
Confused yet? Here’s how it lines out…
Daniel W. Hogue ———- Sarah Jackson Bates ——— Andrew Jackson Bates
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Ralph P. Hogue Mary Jane Bates —— William M Hogue
Percy Hogue (Daniel’s brother)
R.P. Hogue was born in Georgia in 1854. He testified that he was present at the marriage of William and Mary Jane in Cleveland, TN in 1861. Percy attested to the same thing. William had passed away by this point; these two affidavits were to verify that Mary Jane was indeed William’s widow.
Grandpa, No. But Cousins Galore…Yes.
Percy Hogue, born in 1850, first married Edmond Lawson in Tennessee. Their son, Daniel Starling Lawson was born in 1866. Percy and her son headed west to Montague County, Texas, after splitting with Edmond. I haven’t found much info on Edmond. In 1869, Percy married her second husband, James J. Hogue. There were two James J. Hogues at his time. One James, born in 1848, was Percy’s oldest brother. The other James was born in 1849 to William M. Hogue and Sarah Strawn, his first wife. Percy marries the second James J. (for Jesse) Hogue, her first cousin.
Percy and James had three children. Their youngest, Andrew Lee Hogue (he went by Lee), married Nancy E. Blackerby Lawson, the widow of the Daniel Starling Lawson, in 1905. Daniel and Nancy had six children together before his death in 1901. D.S. Lawson was a member of the Leon Masonic Lodge around the same time as Charley Hogue.
Lee and Nancy had two children, Clara and Buford. Not only were they Lee’s children, but they were also his second cousins once removed. Lee died young, age 27, in 1907 and is buried in the Illinois Bend Cemetery in Montague County, TX.
Andrew Lee Hogue (1880-1907)
Thanks to Trails of History from FindAGrave for the photo.
Ralph Pennell Hogue…Where Did the Name Pennell Come From?
I found Ralph’s middle name to be a bit unusual in our Hogue world. Except for Jackson, I don’t see any surnames used as middle names in our lines going back to William G. and Hollin. Jackson, the surname of Sarah above, shows up in a few names. Jackson Monroe Hogue was likely named after Sarah Strawn’s father. My grandpa Henry’s middle name is Jackson, likely named after Jackson Monroe. Anyway, I’ll keep digging, but so far I can’t find Pennell anywhere except as Ralph’s middle name.
Could Pennell be Hollin’s missing surname? I’ve been skeptical of the use of Hafer as her maiden name. You can read my article here about that. After looking around some of the census reports on a few of the counties in central North Carolina, I have found a few Pennell families. I think it might be worth taking the time to investigate this idea further. A shot in the dark? Maybe, but sometimes it’s all we have!
GG Grandpa William’s Pension Application Goes Nowhere…
Of course, the English language being what it is, the word “invalid” has two very different meanings. It can be used to describe someone who is “infirm and/or sickly”, or it can mean “having no force or effect”. In this case William’s application can be described by both definitions.
He was trying to receive payments for being severely injured while on duty for the federal government. However, he could not come up with the required proof necessary to convince the attorneys handling these applications that he was, indeed injured. Therefore, in November of 1886, his pension was denied to his widow, Mary Jane. Case closed.
Also of note, we learned from info gathered during the process, that the battalion William joined in 1864 was not “on the books” of the Civil War. Check out the history of Company “C” of the 3rd Mounted Infantry of Tennessee Volunteers by following the link. They did not have anyone logging their activities. We know that William, his brothers, son and cousins were recorded as enlisting and mustering out from that unit. This pension application provides some added info bout their wartime activities.
That’s my story for now. Thanks for returning to The Hogue Connection and reading my latest post. Hopefully you are certain that you are not your own Grandpa! If anyone would like a digital copy of William’s application, send me an email (admin@hogueconnect.com) and I will forward it along. We’ll see you next month. If you would like to return to the Home page, click here.